Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128404
FIM World Supermoto Championship f there is a location where the World Supermoto series feels at home, it's probably Greece. In the last four years, the FIM series has always touched Greek soil and has always met great circuits and warm crowds. On this latest occasion, the seventh GP of 2005, the series took place at the Autokinetodromio Megaraon in the town of Megara (not far from Athens), and the WSM circus discovered a pretty fast track with a double off-road section that was unanimously liked by the riders. After the exciting GP of Jesolo, held three weeks before Megara, the WSM circus arrived in Greece following the surprising news that KTM will cease its direct involvement in the series. Along with the reasons reported in KTM's official press release (it's claimed that KTM wasn't satisfied with the efforts put forth by the FIM and the promoter), some reliable sources have told Cycle News that the decision was also made due to the expensive investments planned for the 2006 World Motocross and World Road Racing Championships, which, along with less than completely satisfying results achieved thus far in the current World Supermoto series, doesn't justify the investment of more than a million euros. Whatever the real reason, the bottom line is that KTM's exit will leave a hole in the World Championship. If Bernd Hiemer continues to receive factory bikes I 38 NOVEMBER 16, 2005 • in 2006, it will likely be with the support of the German importer rather than the in-house factory team. Thierry van den Bosch will probably not be on KTM in 2006, as he has received a few good offers, chief among them one from Aprilia, which is pretty determined to sign him, as well as to sign an as-yet-unnamed American to the team. There is no word as to where Boris Chambon will end up in 2006, though it would not be unrealistic to see him in America. Ironically, the Red Bull KTM riders dominated in Greece, rebounding from their poor performances at the previous round in Italy. In the SI class, it was a convincing and determined return to the top for both Van den Bosch and Hiemer. The KTM duo added plenty of fire to the proceedings as their intense rivalry nearly boiled over; they got close to an altercation between the two motos when Hiemer complained about a hard attack from his teammate on the first lap of moto one. It could have really cost Hiemer had his bike not restarted right away after the contact generated from VDB's maneuver. With Hiemer being KTM's last hope in the title battles, he couldn't believe his teammate would put him in such a precarious position. So, he went to tell VDB, who apparently didn't care, and the two almost fought. The "discussion" didn't stop there, either; in the last laps of the second moto, CYCLE NEWS VDB, who was leading, refused to let Hiemer by, even after the team ordered him to do so on his pitboard. Afterward, Hiemer was visibly disappointed on the podium, and he refused to take his hat off while the French national anthem was being played. When Van den Bosch saw this, he lost his temper and knocked Hiemer's hat off his head! Thanks to a pretty conservative race, standings leader Gerald Delepine inched closer to his first World Championship, though the door is still open with one round remaining. In the S2 class, Chambon won an embattled race in which several riders showed pretty good form. Among them were defending World Champion Gerome Giraudo and Husky's Eddy Seel, as well as Aprilia's Fred Bolley. With this win, Chambon took over the series lead from Adrien Chareyre, with former SI World Champion SeeI also moving past Chareyre to find himself just a single point behind Chambon.